She, along with my boys, go to Chandler Traditional Academy. The MAIN reason I have her there is because in this fast-growing area of Chandler, school boundary lines are CONSTANTLY changing--we would be on our 4th elementary school if I kept changing schools when we were told to. So I put her in this school when she was in 1st grade because I knew we would NEVER have to change schools again--I'm really big in consistency. The CTA schools kinda have a snotty reputation to them and yes..they have GREAT test scores but I don't LOVE the curriculum there, truth be told. The school main focus is their reading and math programs--all good--but the fine arts really lack in my opinion. There are 5 kids in her band at school and Carlie is always looking for MORE. MORE things to do in music, MORE things that challenge her in her area of interest, MORE reasons to keep going in music.
I know this all too well. I grew up in a small town and didn't have access to a lot of quality music training. But I LIVED for things like Honor Band/All-State band where I could go and be with other kids like me. I would play in my mediocre school band during the school year and then every summer, I was off to every band camp I could go to! The summer of 1993, when I was 16, I got to go and tour 10 countries in Europe for a whole month because I was ranked top in the state of NM for oboe. It was the trip of a lifetime! I toured around with other high school kids from all over the U.S. (And I worked my BUTT off to make the money to go:) So anywhere I ever got to go was because I loved music.
So, like I said...I get this girl. She is amazing and I am soo proud of her and her accomplishments thus far. I can't wait until she starts all of her music travel/adventures. And Carlie....just so you know....I'm going to chaperone every chance I get:)
Yay Carlie!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised there aren't more kids in band at CTA. I agree about there not being enough fine arts at our school either (nearly identical curriculum as CTA) but they do offer band and strings before school; strings starts in 3rd grade thanks to the availability of kid-sized instruments, so Noah & Molly have both started in 3rd grade. I couldn't believe how many kids were in orchestra when I went to their school concert in December; there had to be 80-100 kids all together... just strings.
I keep telling Noah about how awesome Carlie is on piano (& organ)... lately he has been practicing a ton (with the motivation of earning points on his online chore chart) and he's finally making some great progress! He was stuck in level 4 forever but now he's cruising through level 5. I told him he should play a piano solo in church this year or next. The most he's done so far with performing (other than recitals) is accompanying his sisters singing a hymn in our last primary program.
Much too long of a comment.... sorry! :)